european college of sport science

REDUCTION IN HIGH INTENSITY ACTIVITY DURING SENIOR ELITE RUGBY LEAGUE MATCHES
SYKES, D., TWIST, C., LAMB, K., NICHOLAS, C.
UNIVERSITY OF CHESTER
PP-PH08 Physiology 8
Introduction: The amount of high intensity activity (HIA) performed by players has been shown to discriminate between playing standards
in soccer (Mohr et al., 2003). Moreover, irrespective of playing standard, fatigue during competitive match play will manifest itself as a
reduction in HIA during the final 15 min of play (Mohr et al., 2003). However, in the only study to-date investigating the changes in movement
intensities in competitive rugby league (RL) matches, the researchers reported findings that were inconsistent and seemingly dependent
on playing standard (Sirotic et al., 2009). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to clarify the changes in movement intensities
observed during senior elite RL matches.
Methods: Following ethical approval, a semi-automated match analysis image recognition system (ProZone 3, ProZone®, Leeds, England)
was used to track players (n = 78) during three senior elite matches. The players’ movements were classified into locomotive categories
of standing: